A federal court jury on Monday in Fresno cleared a former Atwater prison guard of beating an inmate with a flashlight in retribution for throwing urine and feces into a fellow guard's face.
Authorities claimed Eric McEachern, now 35, hit Maximilian Monclova-Chavez twice in the head while he was helpless -- his hands and feet shackled -- and locked in an isolation cell at Atwater's federal penitentiary.
They charged him with violating Monclova-Chavez's civil rights and also for filing a false report in an attempt to cover up the April 2007 incident.
But jurors took just 3 1/2 hours to clear McEachern of the charges. He breathed a sigh of relief as the verdict was read and patted his attorney, E. Marshall Hodgkins, on the back. He had faced the possibility of 30 years in federal prison for hitting Monclova-Chavez.
"The federal government overreached here, and most importantly, decided what the result was before the investigation was complete," Hodgkins said.